The proposed research represents the initial stages of a research program investigating the potential role of parents' cognitions as mediators of their behavior toward their young children. Based on prior work in social cognition, mothers' attributions (i.e., causal explanations) for their young children's behavior will be investigated. Specifically, mothers' beliefs about possible causes for their infants' easy/difficult temperament behavior will be studied. Two studies are proposed that will address the following specific aims: (a) to identify specific causal attributions made by mothers of 18 to 24 month olds for their infants' behaviors contributing to temperamental easiness/difficultness, (b) to investigate mothers' specific attributions in terms of the causal dimensions that may underlie them, and (c) to examine differences in mothers' attributional patterns as a function of several parent and child variables including parity (primiparous vs. multiparous), age and sex of child, and easy vs. difficult behaviors. The purpose of Study 1 is to identify specific attributions that are representative of mothers' causal explanations for their infants' easy/difficult behavior. This will be done when mothers will generate possible causes for a sampling of 12 infant behaviors (6 "easy" behaviors and 6 "difficult" behaviors) that are described in brief statements and that have been identified in previous research as relevant to parents' notions of easiness/difficultness. Specific attributions provided by mothers will be subjected to a content analysis and will be used in Study 2 for determining causal dimensions that may underlie these explanations. The identification of causal dimensions is sought because attribution theorists view such dimensions as critical to the understanding of subsequent cognitions, affect, and behavior. Thus, in Study 2, a second sample of mothers will be requested to provide attribution ratings (the specific rating scales will be derived from Study 1 based on frequently made attributions) for the same 12 stimulus behaviors presented in Study Principal components analysis will be used to investigate causal dimensions that may underlie mothers' specific attributions. Together, these studies will serve as the foundation for the assessment of parental attributions in future studies designed to investigate relations between such attributions and subsequent cognitions, affect, and behavior.